BORDER GATE OPENED FOR FIRST TIME IN YEARS

Father embraces daughter in celebration at Friendship Park, but gate closed quickly

History was made at 12:13 p.m. Sunday afternoon at Border Field State Park as about 100 people on both sides of the international border looked on.

It was then that a rusty steel door in the border fence between the United States and Mexico swung open, to a round of cheers and applause. It marked the first time since the construction of the fence in the mid-1990s that the door had opened.

History lasted about two minutes. That was how long the gate stayed open, long enough for a father to step through and embrace his daughter on the other side, and for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner and his fiancée Bronwyn Ingram to step though and say a few words. Then the gate swung closed.

The events were part of a unique celebration at Friendship Park, the small park right on the border that for years was the scene of weekend reunions between family members in the U.S. and Mexico. For years since the park opened in 1971 with a dedication by first lady Pat Nixon, families met there and could hold hands and pass items through what was a simple chain-link fence.

The imposing steel fence was constructed in the 1990s and reinforced and rebuilt since then, said Enrique Morones, the founder and president of the group Border Angels, which organized Sunday’s event. A second fence a few hundred feet north was built about a decade later. Access to the park was restricted and all but closed off in 2009 by the Department of Homeland Security as it constructed more fencing.

It reopened last year on a limited basis, enough to allow families to visit with relatives in Mexico through the fence. However, thick steel mesh on the fence right on the border makes it difficult to see through and almost impossible to touch each other.

Morones said the Border Patrol had agreed a couple of weeks ago to open the gate on Sunday briefly. It took some work with grease and blow torches to loosen the hinges and bolts, he said.

“This is Friendship Park, the heart and soul of the immigration issue,” he said.

Border Angels were planning an event at the park for the commemoration of Children’s Day, which falls on April 30 in Mexico, and is an annual holiday to celebrate children. The group planned to distribute toys to children on the Tijuana side to mark the day.

What they had not planned on was Luis Angulo, who had come to the fence to see his 5-year-old daughter, Jimena, on the Tijuana side. The two spoke through the fence when the park opened at 11 a.m.

Then when the gate was opened, Angulo was allowed to step through and grab his daughter in an embrace. He said later it was the first time he had hugged her. The girl was born in Tijuana, and he said he has not put the paperwork together to bring her over.

“I think it’s a miracle,” he said afterward.

Ingram was moved by the scene of father and daughter, brushing away tears at one point. Morones said she suggested that when the gate opened, Angulo should be allowed to pass through and embrace her. The original plan was to have a child from each side pass through and hug, but Morones said Ingram’s idea was a more powerful one. He called the moment when father and daughter hugged “a moment I will never forget.”

Ingram said the gate opening was symbolic. “We’re one area, and it’s great to celebrate that and not think of the border as the end of the line or a cul-de-sac,” she said. “We should be building bridges and opening gates instead of building these big walls that separate us.”